A year ago we had a chance to test a couple of Beelink micro PCs, including a stick PC, and we were pleasantly surprised; not only by the performance offered by Intel’s venerable 22nm Bay Trail processors, but by the build quality of these diminutive PCs.

At CES 2016 show in Las Vegas, Intel had quite a lot of new things to show, including a whole new line of Compute Stick devices powered by its latest Skylake-based Core M chips as well as a new entry-level Compute Stick based on Intel Cherry Trail Atom chip.

A couple of months ago, Asian tech sites started talking about a new trend among Chinese tablet manufacturers. Since the tablet market was overheating, manufacturers were looking beyond tablets to ensure growth. Intel’s new 14nm processors were just what they were looking for, as they enabled them to start building inexpensive ultraportable notebooks. Many of them are marketed as “ultrabooks” but unlike proper Ultrabooks, they’re not based on “big core” processors.

It’s been almost two years since we reviewed our first device based on Intel’s Bay Trail Atom System-on-Chop (SoC). Obviously, it’s time for a refresh, and it comes in the form of the eagerly anticipated Cherry Trail platform. To be more precise, Atom x5- and x7-series parts, codenamed Cherryview, are the new 14nm chips, while x3 branding is reserved for SoFIA chips.